Messages - alisonmonahan

Look, you're not an idiot because you were at the mean, or slightly below, your first semester of law school. And, outside of job applications, no one's every going to know what your law school grades were. (So you can stop worrying about opposing counsel or a judge looking down on you for your first semester grades.)

But you do need a plan for how you're going to improve things. Have you gotten your exam answers back and really looked at them to figure out where things went wrong? Sucks, but it's critical to do.

There's some truth to both camps here. On the one hand, you can't really know what law school is like until you experience it, and there's no need to get super stressed out now. On the other hand, it is useful to spend some time preparing for what you'll encounter, because law school exams are really different from undergraduate exams, and you need to have a plan going in for what you're going to do.

So, that being said, here's a ton of advice I wrote for 1Ls last semester on the topic: http://thegirlsguidetolawschool.com/law-school-exams-101/. It'll keep you busy for a while, and explains everything from what law school exams are testing to the details of dealing with an ambiguous essay question.

I've also started an even more targeted site: http://lawschooltoolbox.com, which will contain most of my new exam prep content (so as not to bore everyone on The Girl's Guide site!). Feel free to sign up there, and there will be lots of good stuff for you.